To think he should take his own child to school?

[ApplesandOrangesandPears]

I have a neighbour who's child is my daughters class, every day this past week this child has showed up at my door unaccompanied to go to school with us - this would be fine but my child has ADHD and mornings are chaotic and difficult. I don't have this child's parents phone numbers, and don't know exactly where they live! However I just saw the parent in their car driving away as I was trying to bundle all 3 children across the car park.....this child is very young and so I don't feel comfortable sending them home alone and clearly the parent isn't waiting for them to get home before leaving themselves! I don't have any contact with these parents so if something were to happen I wouldn't be able to let them know, we are also going away soon and won't be able to take him to school! AIBU to think this is really cheeky of the parents and that you shouldn't just assume another parent will take yours to school with no prior conversation at all!

I’m only half way through the thread and have read all of op’s posts. This sounds like a good idea.

You sounds lovely op and I can imagine you will be concerned for the child’s welfare if you can’t go in or aren’t around.

I agree it’s a huge safeguarding issue. You are also potentially putting yourself in a very vulnerable position. Eg What would happen if you had a car accident with the child in your care &s/he was injured, or if s/he said something at home that the parents to make some sort of abuse accusation against you……?

She doesn't drive. They walk. The kids run ahead together on the path they go along. Because they are schoolfriends.
She told the school 2 days ago. The school told her 2 days ago that the child can go to school on his own

The "what if sexual abuse accusations" on the thread are really really bizarre. And as a DSL any parent talking to me with that level of paranoia would raise far more red flags than Billy knocking on Freddy's door to walk to school together.

Read back & you’ll see I didn’t say sexual abuse ……. 🤯

Thanks for being patronising.

I did read the op's posts. Maybe you should read mine again? You started arguing with me about what I said regarding the situation going forward, not what has already happened.

And I presume your would not be allowed to walk anywhere UNaccompanied at age 7?! Otherwise you're just as neglectful as the parent in question.

Am I missing something...why don't you approach the parents and talk to them about this? Obviously YANBU but I don't understand why you wouldn't just speak to the parents of the gold and tell them you can't escort their child to school?

OP doesn’t know the kid’s parents. She has only see one zoom off in the car after dumping the child.

Read back & you’ll see I didn’t say sexual abuse & clearly accidents can also happen while walking. If you think it’s ok then you’re allowed to have your opinion. I don’t have to agree with you or the school. The person who posted solicited a range of opinions, which they take is up to them.

I would contact the school and let them deal with it. This is serious and the parents need to understand that, they don't know what kind of person you are and they're willing to send their child to you without even speaking to you. The School need to know, they can look out for any other issues and educate the parent's with regards to the safety and wellbeing of their child. You shouldn't have to feel responsible.

I state things how they are. I don’t beat around the bush. It may be a possible ASD trait of mine?

I was not arguing with you; it’s called a discussion. This is obviously an online discussion forum where everybody can see everybody else’s posts, even when a pp’s posts are written in response to another pp’s post. Therefore, my posts are written for consideration by everyone reading this thread, and not just you.

You assumed right. Of course I meant to type ‘unaccompanied’! Oops! Typos are not a shooting offensive. I realised I made a typo after posting and purposefully did not bother posting again to correct it, as I assumed pp would realise it was a typo based on my stance in that last post and my previous posts throughout the whole thread. But, thanks for letting me know.

I know what I’m talking about and whether these safeguarding concerns would meet the threshold or not, as I work in this area and have experience of situations such as these escalating. Children’s Services need to be involved. These are red flags that the responsible adults in this child’s life should be picking up on.

What if you had a morning appointment? Say Docs or Dentist?? Are you expected to get this child to school and then take your child? Or worse, drag this child along with you. Some parents take the absolute piss when dumping their kids!!

Presumably the child would walk to school on their own as they have permission to do. (Confirmed by the OP at 9.00 on Friday morning after she spoke to them)

@ApplesandOrangesandPears if you're still around, (and I understand you might not be after all the bizarre comments you've been subjected to, plus the Groundhog Day stuff 🤣) maybe ask HQ to edit your title or this is going to run and run and get ever more dramatic. Your AIBU that kid turns up at my house to walk to school with me and mine already has you being accused of abuse, driving cars and crashing them with the child inside and being unable to parent your own children. Talk about Chinese Whispers.

*offence (bloody predictive text!)

OP should not take offence at pp accusing them of being abusive to this child. PP are just warning OP to be careful of subsequent allegations that could be directed at them, as they allowed themselves to be put in a both a difficult and vulnerable position on multiple occasions last week, due to no contact with this child’s parents.

It's not fine it's actually a child protection issue. Can u imagine a kids turns up at school without a parent school would be on the phone . You don't have the parents number and its extra responsibility for you nah up to them to make arrangements how their child gna be taken to school and by whom u don't just allow a kid to turn up on someone's door Step and drive off they clearly aren't responsible enough to have children

This is a safeguarding issue. Inform the school immediately and they will investigate.

Amazing, unheard of piece of advice there 😁

@Ultimatedogsbody

Can u imagine a kids turns up at school without a parent school would be on the phone .

Not this school. Because OP told us yesterday:

The school are aware of the mornings now (although children can walk to and from school alone apparently and there's no law about the age).

I didn't see how old this Child is. We all know as parents a child just being dropped at our door with no parent anywhere to be seen is not just a pee take but is strange. How do we know the parent is even with the kid in the evenings? Not making assumptions before anyone says but just saying ko parent around random kid turns up on doorstep don't seem right

If original poster walks off and leaves kid there and something happens to him or her she's gna feel awful and it'd not her responsibility

Walking alone to school is not the issue here, although I have no idea the age or cognitive ability of this child.
Off parent(s) go without an awareness of who their child has contacted along the way.
The writer who comments about “Karen”, well they clearly have never picked up a newspaper or attended a safeguarding/child death mtg.
The situation is for social workers to decide next steps. End of!

Speak to the school, they'll raise it as a safeguarding concern & speak to the parent

Report it to the school. This is a safeguarding concern as others have said. Understandable if you had an arrangement in place with the parent but as you have not, you are taking many risks taking the child with you to school. You could be accused of anything as there are no other adults with you. Alarm bells are ringing here.

She did. Two days ago.

See above.

I wonder if this could be a safeguarding issue and if it should be reported to the school - I'm quite sure no one will have thought of this